Creating maps? Older newbie to Wesnoth missing something ...

[David JJ]

Maybe I've missed it but skimming over the Wesnoth manuals I have been able to decipher how to start creating a scenario, but is there no map creation functionality? If so where?

Apologies if the answer's obvious, but I'm rushing to get the kids a bath and to bed.

David JJ

[Dave]

Maybe I've missed it but skimming over the Wesnoth manuals I have been able to decipher how to start creating a scenario, but is there no map creation functionality? If so where?

There is a basic map editor. You can use the --enable-editor argument to ./configure if you're compiling from source on a unix-style system to get it to compile. (If you're on a different system, let us know and we'll tell you how to get it).

The alternative that most people currently use is to edit the map files by hand. Each tile in the map is represented by a single character. The types of terrain are in data/terrain.cfg. You can see samples of other maps in data/maps/*

We would like to create better map making functionality in the future, but our developer resources are rather limited.

David

[Christophe33]

I do or redo maps with a word editor...it is slow but it works. The only difficulties are with thing like bridge that need to be placed precisely.
Here is the list of characters used for the map:
deep water char=s
shallow water char=c
pier char=p aliasof=g
swamp water char=w
bridge-n-s bridge char=| aliasof=g
bridge-ne-sw bridgediag1 char=/ aliasof=g
bridge-se-nw bridgediag2 char=\ aliasof=g
sand char=d
road char=R aliasof=g
dirt char=r aliasof=g
grassland char=g
village char=t
human village char=v aliasof=t
underground village char=D aliasof=t
tundra char=S
snow village char=V aliasof=t
hills char=h
snow-hills char=H aliasof=h
mountains char=m
forest char=f
snow-forest aliasof=f char=F
castle char=C
keep char=K aliasof=C
cavewall char=W
cave char=u

[David JJ]

With the Mac OSX version, all of the application files are in a single bundle. Once I opened that and explored the various components (Show Package Contents) I found the various map files and copied one out to examine it using one of my text coding tools (SubEthaEdit) and voila! It was cool to see the map looking like the graphics we created back in the early 1980s.

I appreciate the help and will now start tinkering with scenarios etc. I may even mention to some of my program coding friends who work in Cocoa that a simple OSX map editor would be a good thing to create and see what they can whip up in a weekend or so.

Thanks again, David JJ

[Sithrandel]

Hi, I had been wondering whether or not to do a campaign editor, but all the feedback seems to be that they don't really think it is req'd. What they want is the map editor.

There is the basic editor as mentioned above. If you know someone who can knock out something better quickly, then please do ask them

[Kamahawk]

I campaign editor would be great, but at the moment a working map editor is much more important.

[Sithrandel]

Is the editor above not working ?

[Petrock]

I just tried it, didn't work for me. I'm on Panther (10.3.3) if that helps.

[Christophe33]

Yes a map editor that works is the first requirement for us poor Mac user. Without any map you can't go far in making scenario. Text editors works but it is slow and clumpsy for fine tuning. I would really like to see a scenario editor for mac, it would make my life easier.

[turin]

(warning- nonprogrammer speaking)
any possibility at all of porting a mac campaign editor that is usable to linux? if the design is good it might be a good idea to have the editor the same for all platforms.

[Kamahawk]

Works for me, but save as and save are a necessity in my oppinion.

[Petrock]

(warning- nonprogrammer speaking)
any possibility at all of porting a mac campaign editor that is usable to linux? if the design is good it might be a good idea to have the editor the same for all platforms.

It should be possible. Mac is now based in Unix so most software that works on Linux works on a Mac. I may be wrong, but I believe it can be designed that way.

[fmunoz]

Most sowftware form Linux could be ported more or less easy to OsX but not the other way around. The editor could be programmed using some of the mac APIs (Cocoa) or lenguajes (Objective C, macscript...) not avalaible in linux

[Sithrandel]

We've been down this route before, discussion wise. Then I was fighting for an cross-platform map editor. The decision was that the game needs to be cross-platform, but not the tools.

From my point of view, I'd like to give something back to the project. I'm confused by SDL and can't justify the time to get to grips with it. Thus me writing anything useful cross-platform isn't going to happen.

Cocoa is a very versatile language good for getting complex projects up and running. My plan is to try and develop something good for new users or as a rapid startup for the pros. The pros will probably want to hand tweak, but it should still prove useful to some. There is a python Map Editor in the works, but unfortunately for Mac users it uses a version of GTK which is unstable on the Mac.

I'd have to query fmunoz a little... Objective-C is built into GCC, even for linux

The problem is that Apple have extended the APIs with a whole host of features. Many of the ones I am using are in the Apple extended set.

Still, I don't have the time to dedicate to the project doing it any other way. As it is, it will be ready when it's ready and may or may not have a purpose for some users. If nothing else it will make me feel more of a contributor to the effort

[Dave]

If nothing else it will make me feel more of a contributor to the effort

I would just like to say that whether or not you write us a map editor (and if you can, I'm sure the OSX segment of the community will love you even more for it), you have contributed alot to the project. It's possible that there wouldn't even be an OSX version if it weren't for you.

You've also been very patient and helpful in tracking down bugs on OSX, and helping to make the port a quality one instead of a hacked together mess.

David